Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu
Almost every Peru itinerary lands clients in Cusco at 3,400 metres on day one and loses the next two days to headaches. We drive straight down to the Sacred Valley at 2,800 instead, and put Cusco at the end, when everyone is acclimatised and can actually enjoy it.
Machu Picchu is timed-entry with fixed circuits, so the ticket is the itinerary. We take the first train from Ollantaytambo and the circuit that reaches the Sun Gate, which means the terraces are seen with mist still in the gorge below.
The valley is not filler. Moray’s agricultural terraces, the salt pans at Maras worked by the same families for five hundred years, and a weaving cooperative in Chinchero where the dyes are still cochineal and chilca.
A night in Barranco, and dinner at a counter working the cold-current fish that make the coast worth the stopover.
The morning flight to Cusco and straight down to 2,800 metres, with an easy afternoon in the Urubamba fields.
The concentric terraces of Moray with an agronomist, then the salt pans at Maras and lunch with the family who work them.
A morning at the weaving cooperative, then the Inca terraces and living streets of Ollantaytambo in the late light.
The first train down the gorge, the circuit to the Sun Gate, and the terraces while the mist is still in the valley.
An optional second entry for Huayna Picchu, then the afternoon train back and the road up to Cusco.
Qorikancha and the Inca masonry under the colonial city, San Blas at a walking pace, and the San Pedro market.
Sacsayhuamán at opening, then Tambomachay and Q’enqo on foot downhill, ending with a Cusco table.
The flight to Lima and the connection home, or onward to the Amazon at Puerto Maldonado.
Related itineraries
A Galápagos Expedition Cruise
Eight days on a sixteen-passenger vessel licensed for the outer islands, not the central loop.
Patagonia: Torres del Paine to El Chaltén
Ten days across two countries of ice and wind, built with spare days rather than a fixed chain.